Electric Road Trip Across Maryland – Emmy Winning Program

Electric car owners Jonathan Slade and Novia Campbell drove from the mountains of western Maryland to the boardwalk at Ocean City in an all-electric Nissan Leaf in the summer of 2012 when there was very little EV charging infrastructure. The Emmy award winning PBS program they produced about their journey is now available to view on YouTube.

One of the goals of the documentary was to show the viability of an electric vehicle for everyday use. If they could drive an all-electric car from Oakland, Maryland all the way to Ocean City, then perhaps viewers would realize that an electric car could serve their commute and daily errands.

The Electric Road Trip documentary inspired our own electric car trip across Maryland on November 11, 2015. By then, sufficient charging infrastructure was in place to enable us to drive a Tesla Model S 70D on a direct route between their trip’s same starting and finish points in 6 hours and 41 minutes including one Supercharging stop in Hagerstown.

In the film, the couple stop at a store near the beginning of their trip and ask the local shopkeeper if she has ever driven to Ocean City. The woman said, “Yes I have, it’s normally a six-hour drive from one end of the state to the other.” Novia laughed and said, ”It’s probably going to take us six days.” Remembering that scene from watching The Electric Road Trip spurred Vera and I to drive a Tesla straight across Maryland to see if it could be done nearly as fast as taking a gasoline car.

What adventure might The Electric Road Trip inspire in you? View the 60 minute program on YouTube.

Jonathan and Novia are currently researching, mapping, and looking for production underwriting for a brand new electric road trip (a sequel) tentatively scheduled to begin shooting early this summer. Find them on Facebook at The Electric Road Trip Across Maryland.